How the Foos Saved Their Summer

Dave Grohl was lost in a
fog. It was mid-June, a few
days after he had toppled off a
12-foot-tall platform during a
Foo Fighters gig in Sweden, breaking his
right fibula and dislocating his ankle. The
damagewas significant, requiring surgery
and sixmetal screws inhis leg. “Aphysical
therapist told me it was like my ankle got
into a 40-mile-per-hour car crash,” Grohl
says. “It’s like my ankle got its ass kicked
by Ronda Rousey.” Worst of all, the Foos
had to cancel the rest of their European
tour, sevendates inall. Their North American
tour – including a 20th-anniversary
concert in Washington, D.C., on July 4th
– was in jeopardy as well.

&nbsp Now, as he sat in an OxyContin induced haze
in London, Grohl had a mystic
vision that saved the Foos’ summer
plans. Reaching for a stack of hotel stationery,
he sketched a “ridiculous, primitive
drawing” of a fantastical, guitar-adorned
throne that would allow him to prop up
his bum leg in concert, and he had Foo
Fighters’ lighting guy build it. “When I
saw that thing, I just fucking cracked up,”
Grohl says, laughing. “It was exactly what
I wanted it to be – and it worked!”

&nbsp Thanks to the throne, Grohl was onstage
for the July 4th show – and for every
Foos gig since. For a guy who’s used to
prowling the stage, sitting down for an
entire show has been a challenge. “I’ve
got my leg up on that thing, but the rest
of my body is like fucking Joe Cocker up
there,” he says. “It’s insane.” Grohl has
been opening shows by playing the riff to
“Everlong” from behind a giant curtain,
which pulls away to reveal him sitting,
leg outstretched, to the elated laughter of
fans. At the Foos’ gig at Boston’s Fenway
Park, Grohl brought out his orthopedic
surgeon to help the band cover the White
Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”. Grohl says
the outpouring of support from fans has
been overwhelming: Every night when he
takes the stage, he looks out and is met by
crowds of people wearing T-shirts emblazoned
with an X-ray of his broken leg. “It’s
really weird,” he says.

&nbsp The Foo Fighters tour runs into November,
with some short breaks, but the band
is already beginning to focus on the second
season of its HBO series, Sonic Highways.
Grohl hints that the premise of the
show – the Foos travel to different cities
and write and record with local heroes –
might get tweaked this time around. “I
have a pretty good idea of what I’d like to
do,” Grohl says. “It doesn’t always have to
be the Foo Fighters. It doesn’t always have
to be America. I’ve already contacted a ton
of musicians to see if they’d be interested
in being involved, and every single one of
them said yes.”

&nbsp In the meantime, Grohl can celebrate
the debut album from Teenage Time Killers,
an all-star punk band featuring Grohl
as well as current and former members of
Slipknot, Fear, Dead Kennedys, Lamb of
God, Minor Threat, the Germs and Alkaline
Trio, among others. The group was
spearheaded by Reed Mullin, drummer
for hardcore-metal vets Corrosion of Conformity,
a longtime friend of Grohl. “Reed
was my drumming hero when I was 15
or 16,” he says. “I’ve stolen so many of his
drum riff s from COC’s Animosity over the
years.”

&nbsp Grohl assumes an unlikely role in Teenage
Time Killers: bassist. The group simply
asked the Foo singer if he wanted to
play the four-string on a number of songs.
“It’s probably my favourite instrument to
play standing up,” Grohl says. He handles
bass on 11 of the 20 songs on the group’s
newly released debut, Greatest Hits Vol.
1. “I knocked out my parts in a day or two,
and it was so much fun,” says Grohl. “It was
like hardcore karaoke with a bass.”

&nbsp Mullin is also organising a Teenage
Time Killers concert in L.A., to take place
with as many of the album’s participants
as possible – including Grohl. “Oh, my
God, I need to learn those fucking songs
again,” Grohl says about the prospect.
“Those are hard.”